The State of the Race...

McCain Thunders Back On a Message of Nationalism

by Ron Giusti, Political Writer

John McCain has his “mo jo” back. His selection of Governor Sarah Palin for the Vice Presidential nomination, along with her electrifying speech before the convention has galvanized the Republican party, enthused that party’s base and given McCain a surge in the polls. Suddenly, Barack Obama has lost his groove as momentum shifts toward McCain.

In addition to Sarah Palin and the excitement she brings, McCain’s campaign has also found its message. With a majority of voters being pulled toward “change” by an ailing economy, an unpopular war, and deep disillusionment with the Bush Administration, McCain and his handlers realized that their earlier theme of “experience” wasn’t going to cut it.

As a result McCain has changed course and decided to base his campaign on the simple idea that he and Governor Palin are more American, more mainstream, more like you and me and more patriotic then Barack Obama.

This message is aimed directly at the white culturally conservative “blue collar” rural and suburban voters that Obama has struggled to attract. They are a key demographic group, clustered as they are in the key mid-western “battle ground” states of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. To win the election Obama will probably need to win at least three of these states.

Because of the time he spent as a POW in North Vietnam, John McCain is uniquely positioned to base his run for the White House around a claim of superior patriotism. The senator spent much of his convention acceptance speech discussing his experiences as a prisoner:

“I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.”

As the delegates cheered this speech they waved placards with only two words on them; “COUNTRY FIRST.” The not-so-subtle message being that unlike McCain, Barack Obama doesn’t put his “country first.” At both the convention and subsequent McCain rallies crowds have shouted in unison; “USA, USA, USA.....” as if McCain’s opponents were Russia, China or Islamic Terrorists, not the Democratic party of the United States.

McCain has reinforced his claim of superior patriotism by repeating again and again that: “I would rather win the war [in Iraq] than win an election.” Conversely, he has charged that Obama is willing to lose the war in Iraq in order to win the election, essentially a backhanded way of charging the democratic candidate with treason. This message is further hammered home when Palin tells voters that McCain “did not break faith with our troops” in Iraq, again the implication being that Obama by opposing “the surge” betrayed these same soldiers. She goes on to say that of the two presidential contenders McCain is; “the only one who has every really fought for his country.”

Governor Sarah Palin provides the spark that makes all this work. Without her on the ticket, McCain’s “I’m more American than you” approach might make him seem peevish, grumpy and out-of-date. However, Palin gives McCain’s argument force, vigor, newness and zip. In a charismatic, likable, even glamorous way she is representative of the people she seeks to attract to McCain’s campaign.

The first major party vice presidential nominee in recent history with no connection to “establishment” Washington Palin reeks of authenticity. She really does hunt, fish, cook dinner, take care of the kids, drive the car herself and believe in the values of evangelical Christianity. Wal-Mart moms realize that Palin is one of them and they like her style. The Republican strategy to contrast her life story and John McCain’s with Barack Obama’s biography is working. One recent poll shows that after McCain picked Palin his support among white woman moved from 50-42 for Obama to 53-41 for McCain, a 20 percentage point switch.

In addition Governor Palin’s career as a political reformer in Alaska has aided McCain in his attempt to re-establish himself as the fighting maverick he was once perceived to be. McCain and Palin have succeeded in co-opting Obama’s call for change, by claiming that they are the real reformers, who will clean up a Washington D.C. controlled by their own party. Sarah Palin confers on John McCain the trappings of populism.

In one big switch during and right after the Republican convention, McCain’s campaign has succeeded in making the presidential campaign about personality rather than policy. Who do you want behind that big desk in the oval office and of those running who is most like you? At campaign rallies Sarah Palin reminds people, with just a bit of a sneer, that Barack Obama was a “community organizer” hoping I’m sure that in some subliminal way voters in rural America will confuse the democratic nominee with Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or some other urban rabble rouser pushing a grievance. Recently, the McCain campaign has been running an ad falsely claiming that Obama supports “comprehensive sex education” for kindergartners.

In its audacity and simplicity, the McCain campaign’s strategy is ruthlessly brilliant. It is a strategy predicated upon who Barack Obama is and the cultural fears blue collar and middle class voters have about him. At its core, the McCain campaign’s main theme is nationalistic, resting on the claim that John McCain and Sarah Palin are more “American” than Barack Obama could ever hope to be.

The larger question might be whether a presidential campaign revolving around and possibly decided by such petty attacks has any link at all with the realities of the world with which America must deal?

In the next few weeks, Barack Obama’s challenge will be to get the presidential campaign’s focus back on things like the state of the economy, the war in Iraq and health care. If he fails in this task Obama will see his chance gradually slip away.